Calling an audit of New Jersey’s tax incentive programs “deeply troubling,” state Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said Monday that he would examine whether any laws were broken as companies cashed in on some of the $11 billion in taxpayer-funded corporate subsidies mostly approved since 2005.

Grewal's announcement came in response to a state comptroller report last week that found the state Economic Development Agency lacked the internal controls to check on whether companies actually created or retained the jobs they said they would, raising the possibility that some companies lied in order to receive tax breaks.

“There are many things we still do not know about the historical details of EDA’s incentive programs, but it’s time to start asking some tough questions,” Grewal said in a statement. “If it turns out that taxpayer dollars were distributed in violation of civil or criminal law, I will use the full powers of my office to seek recovery of those funds and ensure that the proper parties are held accountable.”

New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal at his Newark office on Friday, August 17, 2018.(Photo: Michael Karas/NorthJersey.com)

Under a series of tax incentive programs over the course of several administrations, the state has approved nearly $11 billion in tax credits to spur the creation or retention of more than 240,000 jobs and $34 billion in capital investment.

Only a fraction of those credits has actually been distributed, as companies must meet certain performance targets to cash in. But that money now appears to have been paid out with inadequate oversight, while the state could be deprived of much-needed revenue for decades to come as companies continue to meet the targets that trigger the credits.

Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat who has long criticized the tax incentives as wasteful, used the results of the audit to call for an end to the incentive programs and their replacement with new ones that are capped and “have accountability and responsibility written into them.”

The most controversial and expensive of New Jersey’s tax incentive programs were approved under Murphy’s predecessor, Republican Chris Christie, and are set to expire in July, giving policymakers a few months to debate whether they should be renewed, replaced or scrapped.

Grewal stopped short of saying his office had launched a formal investigation, and he did not offer details on what laws may have been broken. Last week, Murphy declined to share which companies had been examined as part of the audit.

The Attorney General’s Office on Monday declined to comment beyond its three-paragraph statement.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, both Democrats, have said any tax incentive programs authorized after July must address the concerns raised in the audit.